I love Barbie.
I’ve loved Barbie since I was 5 years old…maybe younger than that. I’ve loved Barbie for as long as I can remember. I have so many childhood memories of my sister and I playing Barbies for hours upon hours. We were so Barbie obsessed that my parents turned an old storage closet in our garage into our “Barbie Room,” where we would hole ourselves up in for hours playing with all our dolls. We took bags of our dolls and clothes on every road trip.
Before we began to play, we had this intense selection process of how we determine which doll we got. We would lay out all the dolls in a line, and then take alternating picks like we were doing a keep/cull sort of cattle.
We cut their hair.
We had Barbie weddings.
Every Christmas involved getting the Christmas Wishbook and circling every Barbie item in the book.
So to me, Barbie was not just a toy, or a doll, but a part of my life and a role model to what I “always wanted to be.” I could play for hours pretending with Barbie in all kinds of scenarios, dream houses, dream cars, dream weddings, and more.
But as I’ve gotten older, and a mother of two girls, I appreciate Barbie even more. And I wanted to say “Thank you, Barbie” for always being encouraging to women in agriculture and ranching.
I wasborn in 1979, so the very first Barbie I remember was this beauty:
Which, if you think to the 70s, she’s pretty accurate for fashion and style. I LOVED her. And, how awesome were her two horses – Midnight and Dallas. I love how Midnight is a little ranchy, yet Dallas is a little fancy.
As the 80s and 90s arrived, Barbie’s western fashion also evolved from the Farrah Fawcett / Urban Cowboy look to, uh, I’m not really sure how to describe this? This is Western Fun Barbie, and I had her. Did anyone else?
It’s awesome to go back and watch the commercial about Western Fun Barbie:
And, how many cowgirls dreamed of Western Fun Ken:
Well, maybe not ha ha….
But, don’t forget, in this time era, even legends like Kirk Stierwalt, Bobby Maddox and Bob May were wearing white Reeboks, so take that into consideration before judging Ken’s outfit.
Also in the 90s, we had this lovely Barbie gem – Western Stampin’ Barbie, who I believe is a country music singer based on this YouTube ad:
While I’m not sure Western Stampin’ Barbie really focuses on women in agriculture, it’s clear that Barbie has always loved animals, especially horses. Here are a few of the Barbie horses through the years. Who had any of these:
Barbie and Tawny, complete with a great safety helmet.
Barbie and Walking Beauty, so elegant:
These two horses – Prancer and Rosebud – were also beautiful Barbie horses:
And if you were REALLY lucky, you got a Barbie stable:
But Barbie isn’t just a horse loving, country music, western fashionista. Did you know she has also been a veterinarian through the years, including this vintage Barbie vet:
Today, there is a Barbie veterinarian in the current Barbie careers lineup:
Barbie Farmer is also another popular doll in the Barbie Careers, line, though she is getting fairly rare and hard to find:
Barbie also uses horses and agricultural careers in their books too:
And, before closing, as a lifetime Barbie fan, I have to share my favorite Barbie of all time:
So what Barbie’s were some of your favorites?